The Raindogs - The Adventures of The Raindogs By Nick Quantrill Photos of Raindogs and A Certain Type of Person at The Sesh 5th April 05 by Michelle Dee

Photograph Gallery   A Certain Type of Person Gallery ,   Raindogs Gallery 1,   Gallery 2,

Formed in October 2004 The Raindogs comprise of vocalist and guitarist Martin Clappison (ex King Rupert), bass guitarist Phil Ives (ex Circa 75) and drummer Dan Lydon (ex Mr Ed). The Adventures of The Raindogs is the band's first release and having played only a handful of gigs to date, the CD is testament to the huge improvement that the band has undergone during this period.

The overall strength of this CD lies in the fact that The Raindogs don't sound like any other particular band. At one point the gravely vocals are reminiscent of The Stereophonics while at the same time the clever use of melody with melancholic lyrics reminds of The Pernice Brothers and even on occasion, Nirvana. At other times, you can even hear the stadium rock of U2 in The Raindogs sound. Drawing on a wide range of influences from country, indie and rock, The Raindogs are ploughing their own musical furrow. The focus is very much on classic song writing and musicianship.

The CD opens with Stop Smiling, a highlight of the live set. Stop Smiling is a real old-school indie-rocker. With a driving rhythm and the clever use of additional keyboards together with a huge anthemic chorus, it's a highly effective opening track that demonstrates the strong melodic focus of the band.

Second track, Stick Around is a slower, part ballad that relies on its dense instrumentation to grab your attention. With this track the band demonstrate their versatility by introducing the use of a slide-guitar. By sticking to the principle that less is more, the slide -guitar adds an interesting dimension to the song rather than dominating it, though the addition of a string section might have impressed even more as there seems adequate scope for this on the chorus. The final track, Trajectory is more a foot to the floor rocker than the previous tracks.

The drums are brought up higher in the mix and really propel the track along at a furious pace. The track uses an acoustic guitar to good effect as well as throwing in a choppy, almost ska like riff before the electric guitar is brought in to give the chorus a real kick.

One minor criticism of the CD is that when the band play live one of the highlights of the set is the harmonies provided by Martin and Phil; rough and ready they come to the fore and have that foot-tapping quality that makes the songs memorable. On the CD, this quality is lost a little as the backing vocals are lost in the mix and it serves to bring about a difference between the live and the recorded sound that maybe shouldn't be there. The versatility of the band and their willingness to experiment in thoughtful ways suggests that this CD showcases a highly promising band that is approaching things in a different to many of Hull's bands.

By turning away from what is fashionable in music at the current time, and by throwing a variety of different styles into the melting-pot, the focus still remains on writing classic yet slightly quirky songs.

This debut CD makes The Raindogs one of the most interesting and original bands to watch out for in Hull at the moment.

For more information go to: www.freewebs.com/theraindogsadventures

Photographs courtsey and Copyright © Michelle Dee 2005

Photograph Gallery   A Certain Type of Person Gallery ,   Raindogs Gallery 1,   Gallery 2,

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